Blackmagic Computers

There have also been some much more subtle changes to the game which help improve the overall experience. One example is the placement of the on-screen button prompts, which now appear at the edge of the screen instead of right in the middle of the battle.

“So, someone on the team had this idea—’Why do we have these buttons right in the middle of the screen? Why don’t we have them on the side and just use peripheral vision?’” Palamarchuk told Ars. “It’s something we absolutely love. It really lets you focus on what’s happening and you can watch and enjoy the graphics and the moves Kratos is pulling off, or whatever is going on, and not worry so much about the button presses. While they’re still there, they’re almost taking like a background role to you just enjoying the game.”

In the section I was able to play—which is the same as the one Ben wrote about earlier this week—one of the most striking features is the shift in perspective during the battle with Poseidon. You actually see his death through his eyes. And Palamarchuk says that we can expect more new ideas like this throughout the game.

“One thing about God of War, we don’t want to just have one idea and use it throughout the entire game,” he explained. “There are a couple new things that we haven’t shown, and I’m not actually allowed to even talk about, but as you progress through the game you’re going to see new things. For example, the new perspective that you have throughout the Poseidon fight. So we’re taking a lot of advantages of the technology of the PS3 with our design as well.

“So it’s just not about visuals but it’s also how can the new technology help with the design aspects. You’re going to see puzzles maybe based off lighting and things like this, because 90 percent of the lighting is dynamic, so we’re able to do a lot with that. And just a lot of animations that we weren’t able to pull off in the past and we really took advantage of incorporating that into our puzzles and the gameplay.”

God of War III will be hitting the PS3 on March 16. Look for our review ahead of the official release.